Hotline Miami is superb.

It's horrible actually, in the same way a robbery gone wrong is horrible, the same way a drug raid with 30 casualties is horrible. It's also amazing. It's very early in the morning and my steam account says I have been playing for 5 hours so I am undoubtedly biased at the moment, that having been said it has the best AI of any game I have ever played. I know, I know that sounds like hyperbole but if after I have finished the last 3 levels and collected all of the masks I still stand by that it will be due to one thing; Reaction time. The actual behaviour of the AI in Hotline Miami isn't vastly different from any action or stealth game you will have played before it's just designed more specifically, that is to say there is no consideration for you as a player. If you fire a gun every enemy on the map who hears will come after you, not slowly, not one by one but all together as fast as their 16 bit legs will carry them, and if they get the drop on you, you're on the ground in a pool of your own pixels before you even stop hitting the left mouse button. It's absurd, you die constantly and yet you always feel like the most powerful person in the building, even though you are in fact on a completely level playing field with every NPC you encounter.

I really think this visceral feeling of power is due to the reaction time, there is such an immediacy to the enemy attacks that it doesn't feel scripted, it sort of feels like you are playing against people. (Oh my god multiplayer Hotline Miami would be unbelievable) it's challenging but completely surmountable, you have to be tactical but loose, you must plan but rely on your reflexes. Nothing happens exactly the same way twice, there is a certain amount of variation built into the location of each enemy spawn and some difference in the weapons they carry, this with the simulation of physics makes it all feel much more organic then the retro graphics and feel would let on.

If you have $10 burning a hole in your pocket and you enjoy a little cathartic mass murder, I implore you to at least try it out, it feels like nothing else I have ever played.

It does control sort of weird, W,A,S,D for your movement but there is no sweeping toward the mouse direction, you move exactly up down left or right regardless of where your mouse is pointed, it took me maybe 15 minutes to get used to it and now it's barely even noticeable, just food for thought if you find that sort of thing a problem.

Hotline Miami is superb.

It's horrible actually, in the same way a robbery gone wrong is horrible, the same way a drug raid with 30 casualties is horrible. It's also amazing. It's very early in the morning and my steam account says I have been playing for 5 hours so I am undoubtedly biased at the moment, that having been said it has the best AI of any game I have ever played. I know, I know that sounds like hyperbole but if after I have finished the last 3 levels and collected all of the masks I still stand by that it will be due to one thing; Reaction time. The actual behaviour of the AI in Hotline Miami isn't vastly different from any action or stealth game you will have played before it's just designed more specifically, that is to say there is no consideration for you as a player. If you fire a gun every enemy on the map who hears will come after you, not slowly, not one by one but all together as fast as their 16 bit legs will carry them, and if they get the drop on you, you're on the ground in a pool of your own pixels before you even stop hitting the left mouse button. It's absurd, you die constantly and yet you always feel like the most powerful person in the building, even though you are in fact on a completely level playing field with every NPC you encounter.

I really think this visceral feeling of power is due to the reaction time, there is such an immediacy to the enemy attacks that it doesn't feel scripted, it sort of feels like you are playing against people. (Oh my god multiplayer Hotline Miami would be unbelievable) it's challenging but completely surmountable, you have to be tactical but loose, you must plan but rely on your reflexes. Nothing happens exactly the same way twice, there is a certain amount of variation built into the location of each enemy spawn and some difference in the weapons they carry, this with the simulation of physics makes it all feel much more organic then the retro graphics and feel would let on.

If you have $10 burning a hole in your pocket and you enjoy a little cathartic mass murder, I implore you to at least try it out, it feels like nothing else I have ever played.

It does control sort of weird, W,A,S,D for your movement but there is no sweeping toward the mouse direction, you move exactly up down left or right regardless of where your mouse is pointed, it took me maybe 15 minutes to get used to it and now it's barely even noticeable, just food for thought if you find that sort of thing a problem.

The AI felt really "AI like" to me, not that was a bad thing though. There were definitely sections of the game where messing around with the AI (causing a noise in a room to get a better point of attack against another room of guards) was really helpful. It was cool seeing some real simple AI as well work so well.